Darth Avarus: the Protector
by naruhina-namikaze
Summary: 47years BBY, Uzumaki Naruto is born on an uncharted world in the Outer Rim Territories. Brought up in a technologically inept warrior society, Naruto suffers the fate of most inhabitants on the world; death in battle. Or so his would-be-killer has been left to believe...Rated M for safety purposes.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Star Wars. 

Author Note: Okay, so I felt like writing something new for a long time, and this has been in my head for a couple of months so I finally decided to put it down in writing. I've never done a crossover before so please be gentle. Warning, Big assed End Note. Enjoy.

Title: Darth Avarus the Protector 

Chapter Word Count: 6,754

Summary: 47years BBY, Uzumaki Naruto is born on an uncharted world in the Outer Rim Territories. Brought up in a technologically inept warrior society, Naruto suffers the fate of most inhabitants on the world; death in battle. Or so his would-be-killer has been left to believe...

* * *

Prologue

Despite merely being a child, an orphan child at that, the populous despised Uzumaki Naruto. The elder members of society shunned him, beat him, and openly taunted the child for reasons he had no comprehension of. The younger generations could not understand the hatred towards him either, but the actions of their parents quickly taught them how to act around the blonde haired boy. At 12 years of age, Naruto was a pit of hatred, welled up by years of abuse and neglect. All he wanted was for people to acknowledge him so that he could end this insatiable loneliness that ate him up inside.

Gradually, through his new-found status as a Shinobi of Konoha, friendships formed with his teammates and those around him. Naruto's notoriety around the village drastically increased upon knowledge that he, a Genin, held a pivotal role in the victory over the Invasion led by Orochimaru.

Upon his victory against Gaara - a fellow Jinchuriki - Naruto began to see a positive change in opinions towards himself from the civilians who had previously hated him. Such thoughts of acknowledgement halted when Uzumaki Naruto was left for dead by his own teammate...

"RASENGAN!"

"CHIDORI!"

The screeches of electricity and the overwhelming power coming off the two Shinobi drowned their shrieking cries.

For a moment, the valley fell upon a darkened shroud. An oozing ball of energy encased the two combatants. The blonde smiled gently into the eyes of the dark-haired assailant, despite an arm protruding through his chest. He felt cold. Death was near. Yet, he smiled all the same. All because he knew that he'd proved _him _wrong. The last sequence of images he saw was his 'brothers' Hitai-ite flying into the air, and the look of utter horror on Sasuke's face. Then darkness came...

The finishing blow from the electrically charged hand of the Uchiha caused Naruto to plummet to the depths of the river they fought on. The current swept up his unconscious body, dragging him downstream. The raven haired Uchiha landed on the river bank, holding his defensive stance, fully expecting his opponent to rise from the murky depths.

His gaze deferred by the clanging of the metal shard that fell to the ground besides him. Sasuke cast his eyes towards the object, quickly realising that it was his Konoha headband, complete with an imperfection scrawled across the metallic emblem. With one last glance into the gloomy depths, he darted off towards the tree line, leaving the symbol of his former life as a Konoha Shinobi behind, along with everything aside from his desire to avenge his clan.

Naruto's unconscious and damaged body followed the current, far away from the Valley of the End. After countless hours, his body finally washed up on the riverbank. Yet he did not awaken from his slumber. Having spent so long unconscious in freezing water, as well as bleeding heavily from a terrible affliction, it was amazing that the boy still lived. Yet, he was no ordinary boy. The child housed one of the most dangerous beings in the known world, one that could to heal its hosts with such ease.

* * *

'_Come to me, _boy...'

Naruto awoke with a start. Something, no _someone_, had called out to him. At first he thought it was the Kyubi. Then having a few seconds to think about it, he realised that wasn't how the fox inside him operated. He wasn't lying in some dingy dungeon staring blankly at a cage. The damage to the child's body had slowly healed in the days he had remained unconscious, yet it still pained him to sit up from his prone position.

The first conscious thought Naruto had after his startled awakening was the overwhelming desire for ramen. His hunger was quickly dethroned by his inability to fathom his location. If he was still in the Fire country, he had never been here.

Then his memory flooded back to him. His eyes darted around looking for his combatant, causing him to wince in pain as his chest ached at the sudden movement. Uchiha Sasuke had tried to kill him. His best friend...his _brother_ had given in to his desires for revenge. That made him angry. That anger he felt fueled him in this moment of utter dismay. Yet he knew he could do nothing about Sasuke now. He had no idea where he was, or how long had passed since their fateful duel.

The darkness that shrouded him was the first thing he noticed. The floodplain he stood on stretched thirty or so metres, before an embankment. This appeared to slope further, before reaching a steep cliff-face. He turned to see a similar thing on the other bank. The two cliffs seemed to run parallel along the river for two or three hundred metres. It was dark within the valley, yet he could just about see the sun creeping above the summit. The more he became accustomed to his surroundings, the stranger the sensation he could feel became.

He could see no one, yet something was calling out to him. A strange aura penetrated him, moved through his veins as if some power was trying to control him. It felt...dark. Evil. Yet at the same time it felt natural, a part of something bigger.

The plant life around him seemed in a state of decay. An eerie silence blanketed the area. No birds chirping. No animals moved in the line of dead tree trunks and withered branches. The river before him seemed like dark oozing oil ran through it rather than water.

When Naruto reached into it, it had the same consistency as anyone would expect from water. However, when he cupped his hands towards his lips to quench his parched tongue, he instantly spat the fluid back out.

"Blood..." Naruto whispered disgusted that such a thing had passed by his lips. The metallic taste lingered in his mouth, but he had no way of ridding the sickening flavour.

It wasn't a regular occurrence that the loud-mouthed, orange touting, ninja felt fear, but this was an instance he couldn't stop himself from feeling it pang inside him. It felt as though death surrounded him, and he stood at the epicentre. This unknown power was all he could feel. It was as though it was feeding off his fear, his anger, his deep-seated hatred.

It interested him. But it also stirred his prisoner from its slumber. Naruto found himself inside the dingy flooded dungeon once again, face to face with blood-red eyes of the fearsome beast that lurked within.

"Whatever you're doing, do you mind stopping. It's creeping me out, you fox bastard!" Naruto yelled defensively at the creature. He was in a state of discomfort, and it had little to do with his wound.

"**Watch your tongue. This has nothing to do with me, **_**boy**_**." **The way the Kyubi uttered out the word 'boy' was different to the voice that had startled him from his slumber.

"Then who? I don't feel anyone near me other than you." Naruto moaned as he rubbed his stomach as it gurgled at him desiring some of Teuchi's ramen.

Naruto's grumbles of hunger fell on deaf ears. Kyubi was silent. That was something Naruto knew didn't happen very often in their conversations. If the caged beast had nothing productive to say, he usually filled the silence with taunts and fearful actions. Yet now, the enormous fox sat in silence.

"Hey, hey, baka fox? Do you know something about this?" Naruto asked confusedly. He was by no means the sharpest tool in the box, but even he could pick up on the abnormal behaviour of his symbiotic partner.

Again, the hulking figure of orange fur sat in silence, but the expression on its face had turned from contemplation to a tentative scowl.

"**...I have felt this presence before." **The Kyubi snarled as he glanced down to Naruto for only the second time in their conversation. **"It was a long time ago, but I remember this ravenous desire for power."**

"...Well, what is it?" Naruto pried, expecting more of an explanation than that.

"**How about we make a deal?" **The Kyubi asked with a smirk that masked his current fear.

"Um, what kind of deal?" Naruto always hated it when it came down to these 'deals'. However, it was normally the boy who wanted to make them.

"**I will fully heal your wounds, and get rid of your hunger. In return, I want you to find the source of the power." **

"What?! Why would you want to find it? This feeling is really creepy." Naruto shuddered as he once again felt the surge of power lingering in his body.

"**I must be certain of the source." **It was true that the Kyubi had felt this power before, often in fact. Yet the last time was over 40 years ago. And the person whom the same power came from must have been long dead by now...At least, he should have been.

Naruto was about to protest even more, but his stomach growled out once again, forcing him to quickly reconsider his tact. "Fine," he grumbled as he grabbed his stomach.

With that the Kyubi unleashed a wave of crimson chakra. Naruto could feel the aches and pains throughout his body dissipate rapidly. So too, the hunger that almost made him keel over had suddenly vanished. In an instant he found himself on the lifeless river bank once again. Yet, he had no idea where to go.

Almost in reply to Naruto's indecision, Kyubi spoke inside his mind, directing his movements. He crossed the river and began to scale the rock-face, at first running before reaching his limit with his inept chakra control, resorting to the standard approach of movement up a rock face. With each minuscule incline up the rock-face, the insatiable power increased around him. About 150 metres up he noticed a small opening in the rock, big enough for someone to walk at a crouch. Someone as tall as Kakashi would have struggled to squeeze into such a space.

Looking down from the river bank the entrance was just a pin-prick in the rock-face. It was well hidden in the darkened rock. You wouldn't notice it unless you were actually looking for it.

The passageway beyond the entrance was dark. The claustrophobic vibe made him sick, yet he pressed on due to the words of the fox berating his fear in his head. The further into the tunnel the blonde boy went, the more certain he became that this was the source of the dark energy that filled every pore in his body.

He moved in further, pressing his hand against the musky walls as he moved, feeling his way forwards as his eyes were practically useless. A couple of times he banged his head on low-hanging rocks, but the path seemed to arc with no diversions, which made it easier to navigate. Yet, with every step Naruto made forwards, he wanted to take ten back.

The power pulsated through the walls, entering his body through his hands that helped him amble through the darkened passage. The sheer concentration of the power made him shudder, yet still he pressed on, albeit slowly. The air was thick. Every breath felt like he was inhaling ash, singeing his throat as it passed into his lungs.

However, this mysterious power was somewhat of a paradox. It lingered inside him, devouring his chakra, feeding off him. The power overwhelmed him – it made him more fearful than anything he had come across. Yet, it also empowered him. The force with which the entity entered him was exhilarating. Everything seemed heightened. His senses, his emotions. It felt like using the Kyubi's chakra, except it wasn't a borrowed power. No, it was _his_. Naruto's power left him, but in return he was given something greater. This feeling, it was..._intoxicating._

'_Peace is a lie, there is only passion.'_

'That voice,' Naruto thought. The Kyubi voiced its agreement inside the boy's mind.

'_Through passion, I gain strength.'_

'_Through strength, I gain power.'_

Naruto felt the erratic tendrils of dark influence become more pronounced. The focal point centred where the severe scar had formed on his chest. Were it not for the darkness, Naruto's chest would be visible due to the near fatal wound that Sasuke had given him with the final blow. At first it burned, but then the pain surged through him the likes of which he had never felt before. He had no explanation as to why, but these words that were resonating in his head could tame this unknown power. And what's more, Naruto could swear that he had heard them before. Somewhere, somehow, he had crossed paths with these words before.

'_Through power, I gain victory.'_

"...Through victory, my chains are broken." Naruto whispered the words as if they were natural to him. "The force shall free me..."

The Kyubi's blood-red eyes shot open in disbelief. He knew it. The words were familiar to him, but it was only until he heard the whole thing he knew for sure what this was. _**'The force'**_. It had been a long time since he had heard that.

"**Sith," **it growled, taking over Naruto for just an instant as the word echoed through the tunnel. As the word escaped his lips, light encompassed the orange-clad boy. Dozens of minuscule lights fitted into the rock ceiling came alive in response.

In that instant everything became visible. Prehistoric scrawls covered the walls, words and symbols Naruto could not understand nor comprehend. But the illumination also showed him that he had reached the end of the passageway. Roughly fifteen metres in front of him there was another opening into what appeared to be a shrine of some sort.

As Naruto crossed the threshold he realised he was finally able to straighten up. The ceiling was much higher inside the room than in the tunnel. Instinctively, he stretched out his limbs, arching his trunk until he felt the satisfying crack that signified his spine had loosened up after his hunched journey.

"This is kind of creepy," Naruto uttered as he took a full view of the rather large dome he found himself in.

Unlike the tunnel, the illumination in the room was more natural. Seven torches stood lit on top of carved rock obelisks, some five metres high. Yet, Naruto could not fathom how the fire had ignited; much in the same way he couldn't understand who turned on the lights in the tunnel.

Like the passage, unreadable etchings covered the walls. With a greater view of the symbols, even the perplexed boy could see that there was a more organised form to the scrawls than what was first thought. A story? Or perhaps a history? He had no idea.

The only notable decoration in the entire room was found at its centre. A solid platform stood at a slant in the middle of the room, fitted with a hulking stone cover. Carved into the heavy stone lay two figures. The first was a woman. Her face seemed slight and youthful. Her figure portrayed as agile, slender, and beautiful. The second juxtaposition of the first. A brute of a man towered over her. He was bald, aged, not much of a looker, but a wall of knotted muscle nonetheless.

At first Naruto assumed that they were married, but even the logic of 'opposites attract' that he had picked up from his perverted hermit of a master couldn't be put to good use here. No, this shrine was something else entirely.

"**It's not him..." **The Kyubi's words rattled out between Naruto's ears as the fox appeared to also be examining the couple on the stone.

"Who?" Naruto replied in the open, realising that there was no one else here.

"**That is not important anymore, brat." **The fox immediately closed the matter, grunting as he returned to silently watching the young boys moves. If Naruto had been more attuned he would've noticed the relief in the demon fox's voice.

Despite there not being much of anything to look at, one thing was still certain; something in this tomb was unleashing the god-forsaken power that had enveloped Naruto since he awoke on the river bed.

He scanned the room once more, trying to see if there was anything else in there. Again, Naruto found nothing of note, except for one thing. On the back wall directly behind the stone ornament hung a steel plaque, with words of his native tongue inscribed on it.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion." Naruto repeated the words, not fully understanding their pretence. Still, the outcome was the same. The resonating power that overwhelmed him found its centre, yet this time, it surrounded the stone cover.

The feeling of supremacy that had felt so intoxicating to the young child had all but left him, much to his dismay. Naruto no longer felt empowered by an unprecedented power, but weak, drained, powerless. The power was the purest evil he had felt, yet he didn't care. He _wanted_ it. For lack of better judgement, Naruto crossed his fingers, performing his signature technique.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" With that an identical duplicate of the young blonde appeared besides him beneath a cloud of smoke.

Naruto began to sweat profusely, almost dropping to his knees. The trademark technique that he had used so freely in the past was almost unusable. Creating one clone had almost wiped him out. Forcing himself to his feet, Naruto began to focus what energy he had left in his body into the palm of his outstretched hand. Nothing.

He stared blankly at his open palm. He felt no chakra. Yet clearly he still had chakra in his system; his clone had yet to dissolve into nothingness. Naruto began to focus harder, concentrating fully on a focal point in the centre of his hand. He had done this hundreds of times, yet even the first was not as difficult as this. Once again he could feel his anger rising. An overwhelming self-hatred for his inability to create the technique that had saved him so many times.

The inner part of his psyche that housed the overbearing desire to become stronger began to well up, much as it had done in the face of past adversities. Naruto did not merely wish for power, he _craved _it. His intentions, albeit infused with honour and selflessness, nonetheless masked a deep-seated hunger to attain a level of power no other being possessed. To have an aspiration of becoming the 'Hokage' – the mantle given to the strongest warrior in his nation – was something that had fuelled the paths of hundreds of beings before him.

Such a profoundly ingrained attribute was what infused Uzumaki Naruto with strength, and this time was no different from the countless preceding occurrences that had caused him to dig deep within himself to find answers to achieve victory.

Despite still not being able to feel the chakra meander throughout his system, Naruto used his mind to acquire the feeling of the technique that the Yondaime Hokage had created, forcing all his power into the palm of his hand. He felt nothing in terms of chakra, yet he could physically feel the ball of energy begin to form in his hand; he created the tumultuous vortex of raw energy, as his clone worked tirelessly to maintain its form.

The youngsters shoulders heaved at the strain, yet the technique was complete. With a primal scream that shook the tonnes of rock that encased him, Naruto leapt at the sarcophagus with the swirling ball of chakra outstretched in his palm.

"Ra-sen-gan!" The strain of the technique caused each syllable to be emphasised.

Upon impact the slab of rock began to shatter. The pressure of the technique overpowered the colossal stone, cutting through it as though it were paper. As it crumbled beneath the power of the orange clad child, the hollowed out room became quickly filled with a fine cloud of dust and debris, causing Naruto to raise his other hand to his mouth to avoid inhaling any of the fine particles.

For a moment, rise of dust and debris blinded Naruto, until the cloud finally settled. Upon regaining the ability to open his eyes, he noted that he was shrouded in darkness. The only discernible light came from the passageway behind him. As he moved slightly to his left to allow more light into the room, he was met with something that he did not expect. The stone casket had been completely opened up by his technique, yet it housed only one set of remains. A tattered black cloak hung loosely from the skeletal remains that resided within. Judging by the size of the figure, she was the female on the cover stone. Yet there were no signs of the behemoth that towered over her...

"I am glad I invited you here, _boy_. Your power is substantially greater than I had sensed." A voice elicited an unchanging tone from the shadows of the room.

Naruto instantly stopped in his tracks. The words were not in his mind. No, they were tangible. He could feel the sound resonating in his eardrums just like he could hear the low whirring of the minuscule lights in the walkway – the only source of light after the explosion of dust extinguished the flames of the torches.

"Yes, that technique is most intriguing. To have the strength to destroy the cover of my resting place, it must be rather powerful." The unchanging voice spoke out again from the darkened corner of the room.

Naruto was highly confused. The voice was heavy, filled with the gravely texture of a seasoned warrior; and most definitely male. Yet within the dimly lit coffin he could only see the remains of a female. With the cover now gone, Naruto felt his power returning once again and so too his ability to sense those around him. Although it wasn't attuned to the extent of others within his group of friends, he could tell that there was no one else in the room with him. To the growing mind of a twelve-year-old, that could only mean one thing...

"Wh-who are y-you?" Naruto uttered through chattering teeth. He looked around aimlessly before turning inwardly once again. Yet this time the Kyubi had no intention of talking with him.

"Such power, yet overburdened with such impatience. The others that came before you showed a greater initiative, finding the hidden switch on the back of the tomb, as opposed to simply destroying it." The unknown male voice continued to speak, despite the utterances of the child presented before him. "Still, I must admit that you are far younger than your predecessors. You have great potential...yes, very promising indeed."

"S-show yourself...I'm n-not afraid of you," Naruto tried to shake himself from his statuesque posture, but he was as immovable as the cliff-face he found himself bound within. Each word that the hidden assailant spoke sent a shiver from the crux of his spine to the tip of his neck.

"Your emotions betray your words, young one. Your fear is filling the air around you. The dark side of the force is gorging itself on your fear. I can _feel_ it." The voice was no longer echoing, but confined to a point on the far side of the room.

Naruto's instincts were that of a true Shinobi: kunai first, ask questions later. Sliding his hand into the pouch attached to his trouser leg, he whipped out a rusted knife-like blade, instantly throwing it in the direction of the voice. Unfortunately the blade impacted on the blemished rock, missing the target outright. The shard dropped to the floor with a clang, much to the amusement of the deep voiced male.

"You have good instincts to attack me. But such a feat is impossible."

The smouldering torches re-lit themselves as if commanded by nature itself. Naruto's eyes took a moment to readjust, but instantly found the source of the other voice within the room.

The young boy took a step back as the tinted blue figure skulked over the floor. Again, instincts set in, clasping another kunai from his pouch and hurling it directly at the bald cranium of the man. Much to his dismay, the bladed projectile merely phased through the man's skull, harmlessly rebounding off the wall behind him.

"...G-g-ghost-t..." Naruto half stammered, half screamed.

Said 'ghost', a behemoth of a man, some two metres tall, ageing features atop a bulky body, adorned in what Naruto could only assume was a cloak fitted around some form of metallic armour, _glided_ across the dusty floor.

"The fears of a child are amusing, though you're not wrong. Even in death, my connection with the force has remained strong, powerful enough to be granted this non-corporeal form. Very few are favoured enough by the force to attain this power." The man paused as he lowered slightly as if trying to see the boy before him at eye-level. "Despite having a mere percentile of the power I held as a living sentient, I still have the power to destroy you, boy."

Naruto felt a constriction against his throat. He rasped for air, clawing at the invisible vice that choked him, only for the unknown entity to release its hold on him no faster than the act had begun to cause any real damage. He dropped to his knees, heaving greatly to try to flood his lungs with oxygen, coughing throatily as he inhaled some of the dust that littered the cavern floor.

"What is your name, youngling?"

"Naruto," he breathed out unevenly. "Uzumaki Naruto, and one day I'm gunna be Hokage!" A passionate display of determinism to say the least, Naruto looked up at his assailant with a fire in his eyes the likes of which the knotted mass of muscle had not seen in a millennia.

"An ambitious claim," the man paused. "I sense great potential in you. Your future is embroiled in the fabric of the force, I have foreseen it."

"The force?" The boy inquired as he looked up at the ethereal being from his crouched position.

"That is the name of the power that you feel within this place. Your planet is strong in the natural energies of the force. Where there is life, the force resides within."

"Life?" Naruto bemusedly stated. "Have you not been outside? The whole area surrounding this place is dead."

"A mere side effect of the dark side." The male breathed uneasily, growing tiresome of the questions from the child before him. "My resting place has tainted the land around, sapping the life force of nearby creatures to grant me the power needed to reside within."

Confused eyes gazed up at the colossal figure, much to his disappointment. If the blonde haired boy was struggling to understand now, he very much doubted he would be capable of digesting the tomes of knowledge that he could offer him.

"So that's why I felt like my chakra was being eaten up." He said to no one in particular, trying to figure this all out despite his distinct lack of knowledge of this so-called 'force'.

"Chakra. Yes, the bastardised form of the force that this planet seems to have created. You say that is was 'eaten up', yet the truth lies more in terms of your innate abilities coming into contact with the force in its purest form." The gruff reply came from the man, now sliding his way across the stone floor, towards metallic plaque hammered into the stone.

"Peace is a lie; there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The force shall free me." The monotonous voice recited the words verbatim; the plaque was not necessary for him, yet he looked at the words to provide his 'guest' with some form of guidance. "This is the Code of the Sith, passed on through the centuries to guide those strong in the force towards greatness."

Naruto could feel it. These words, this code that the apparition spoke of, they centred the power that resonated in the air around them. Where it felt like a maelstrom only moments before, stability ensued, yet its potency had not declined in the slightest. But one more thing stuck out in his mind more so than this overriding feeling: he was certain that he had come across these words before.

"I know these words..." Naruto trailed off, searching in his mind for the answers that eluded him.

And so he sat on his knees, silenced by his thoughts. To an onlooker it would appear as though he was in meditation, but he was merely conversing with that which resided within him.

"Come on, you must know something that can help me." Naruto pleaded towards the skulking figure inside the dank cage within his mind.

"**I know many things. But I have no interest in this situation any longer. The person I thought I felt isn't here. From here the path you take is through your own choice, brat." **The Kyubi huffed.

"Look, I'm not asking for much. At least tell me where I know these words from."

The snarl that came in reply was one that shook the very foundations of this virtual world that he found himself in. He hated this place, but not as much as the stubbornness of its sole inhabitant.

"I can answer that for you." Naruto looked over his shoulder to the much more human looking figure standing a few paces behind him. "I thought I felt the presence of another life form within you, how fascinating to see that it is one of the sentient beasts that roam this continent."

To say that the youngster was shocked would have been a drastic understatement.

"W-what the hell are you doing in here?"

"The force grants many talents that even you 'Shinobi' would be incapable of comprehending."

The seemingly flesh-filled apparition stomped across the water-soaked floor, moving beyond Naruto and towards the cage before him. Inspecting the staggeringly large fox for the first time, even the beastly male looked like a mere ant in comparison. The ear shattering growl that erupted from the cage did not slow the approach of the man.

"You are the one they call 'Kyubi'? The fanged beast with nine glorious tails...the so called 'leader' of the pack." The bald male stalked across the confines of the cage. "I have admired you and your brethren from afar for nigh on a century. Yet here you lie, rotting in a cage, bound to this child. Pitiful."

The beast snarled savagely, a claw of bubbling red liquid oozed between the bars aiming directly at the man's throat. He merely stood his ground as the dark chakra crashed into an invisible orb surrounding the figure, unable to penetrate its defences to reach the 'prize' in the middle.

"W-who are you?" Naruto hesitated. "How are you in my mind? How do you know these things? What is this power...?" The frightened boy rifled through question after question, his thoughts were only questions, too many for his mind to handle.

"Who I am is not important." The behemoth paused as he turned towards the shrill voice behind him. "_What_ I am is the key to everything. My form, the power you feel flowing through your veins, my knowledge of this sentient buried deep within your subconscious, your comprehension of scripture older than the civilisation on this primitive world, and most importantly...why you, Uzumaki Naruto, are here with me now."

Naruto cowered more now than when this figure before him appeared as a ghost. He had always feared things that went bump in the night, no different to any other child, except, he had not counted on actually meeting the real thing. Yet now, he feared that the ghost of the man before him was merely an ounce of the terror this hulking beast had caused whilst he still breathed.

For the first time, Naruto looked at him – truly looked at him – body and soul. His corporeal form filled out more so than he had anticipated. He was taller than any Shinobi he had come across, easily towering above himself. His chest was as wide as Naruto was tall, yet the boy had no idea whether his girth was muscle, or due to the heavy black cloak that he adorned. The hood hung loose behind him, though the spiky blonde desperately wished that it was fixed in place to cover the hardened stare of a veteran soldier. Cold dead eyes pigmented with an oddly yellow tint burrowed into his own, bound to a cranium both aged and disfigured. Scars, blemishes, and burns covered the man's face and crown. But those eyes, they may have seemed cold and dead, but there was something behind them. Desire. A yearning for power. Yes, Naruto was certain that this man was a soldier, a warrior, yet he did not have the presence of a Shinobi. In fact he did not have the presence of anyone Naruto had stumbled across in his short life.

It took all of Naruto's strength to stand his ground against this man, friend or foe yet to be determined. "And what exactly are you?"

"Your salvation." His tone was even, smooth almost. He could imagine the words spoken with a sickly smile, but Naruto was unsure whether this man had ever smiled, in life or death. "Become my apprentice, and I shall offer you the power that you crave so dearly. I can teach you things no Shinobi could ever teach you...well, aside from one. No longer will you be weak. Never again will you find yourself defeated on a whim by your so-called 'brother'. With my help you can become what you desire most...acknowledged by your people as the strongest in your domain."

Shock flashed across Naruto's face for a second as he wondered how on earth he knew about Sasuke. But the power, this unmistakable force that empowered him even now, it was so alluring. Yet he was certain of one thing; promises are often hollow, easily broken.

"What do you want in return?" Naruto asked dubiously.

"I have been in this tomb for over nine-hundred years, and only a handful of humans have ever found my place of rest. I ask for nothing other than company in my solitude. In return I can offer you some of the powers that I held at my peak over a millennia ago. Companionship with a ghost of the force in return for unparalleled powers, more than a fair trade, _boy_."

Naruto remained silent after the cloaked man spoke. If that was all he asked in return, who was he to argue. But he knew he could not leave this place without being able to call upon this power in the future. The more it lingered within him, the hungrier Naruto became to consume more of it. It was undeniably dark, but it was also powerful, immensely so. All the past few weeks had told Naruto was that he was _weak_, a child incapable of saving his friend from the clutches of a madman with a fetish for snakes and children. A Sannin no less, just like his sensei. He had no hopes of defeating such a foe without becoming infinitely stronger...and he vowed to do so, no matter the cost.

"**You offer the boy power, but I know the taint of it. I've seen your so-called power before." **The Kyubi glanced towards his vessel. **"Uzumaki was once a strong clan, Naruto. They had their own village that was feared throughout the world. This 'power' he is offering you destroyed your homeland, just as it has destroyed the wills of some of the greatest Shinobi to have walked the earth."**

_Homeland?_ Naruto thought. Konoha was his home. That was all he knew of his past. "Shut up you bastard fox, _you_ destroyed Konoha the day I was born. You!" Anger seeped out of every pore. The toxicity deadened the stale air around him as he snarled at the fox in the feral way that he was used to receiving.

'Yes, anger. I sense much of that in him. Perfect'.

Naruto knew nothing of Uzushiogakure – the Land of Whirlpools – that the Uzumaki Clan birthed from. Nor did the Kyubi suspect any of Naruto's peers had any knowledge of the dead island that was once a strong ally of Konoha. The swirling red crest of the clan adorned every military garb within the village, but only the older generations would know if its significance. **"Just don't take the path of the Sith for granted. Be mindful." **

The demon fox had little quarrel with this apparition offering Naruto power. Power was something that Naruto needed. But the Ridoukou Sennin had always told him and his brethren to 'be mindful' of the dark side, despite them having no idea who or what the 'dark side' was. The old man had always had an odd streak about him. At times he looked around the countryside as if he was a distant traveller laying eyes on his surroundings for the first time. Yet the man truly did live like a sage, dressed in his light brown robes, using his abundance of chakra to right wrongs and keep peace rather than use his power to enact destruction. Although, he never called it 'chakra', it was always 'the force'.

His nostalgia was interrupted by the cackle from the man who stared at him in bemused fashion. "What strange words to leave the mouth of a so-called 'demon'." He manoeuvred himself to have the demon at his back, solely focussing on the child. "You desire power to defeat your foes, to protect the ones you love, to save the boy who gave you that ugly scar. Bend your knee to me and offer yourself as my apprentice, and the power you crave shall be yours, in good time."

Naruto was hesitant at first. He already had a sensei in Jiraiya, two if he counted Kakashi. Two of the strongest shinobi he had ever met without a doubt, but there was something about this power that proved more potent than anything they could offer him. Whether or not it was evil was undetermined as of yet. Besides, he could always leave this place if he didn't like it...And so, Naruto knelt on one knee as instructed. "I will be your apprentice if you make me stronger, sensei." The boy felt it necessary to bow his head as if part of some tradition, but he stayed in position.

"Good, very good. But do not dare call me sensei. I am not some poxy shinobi. I am Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith. You will address me as Master. You will bend to my will, or I will cast you out like I have dozens before you." The man smirked in approval as his booming words sent a shiver down the spine of the kneeling boy. "Now, you will be reborn with your new name. Cast aside your past when you are with me. No longer are you Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto didn't like that. Not in the slightest. What was he if he didn't have his name? But that mattered little to him at the minute. What was a name if it held no power? Naruto opened his eyes, after unknowingly shutting them at some point. He was no longer knelt on wet concrete, but dusty stone. A hollow blue cape swayed not a foot away from his eye line, yet he did not move. He dared not move. Ghost or no, this man was not to be messed with.

"Rise, Avarus. Prove to me that you are worthy to wield the title of _Darth_ and I shall grant it to you." Bane declared.

"Yes, Master."

* * *

**End Note:** Well there you have it. I should probably explain myself to readers who have come from my other fics. If you're just interested in this chapter as opposed to my lame excuses for not regularly updating, please proceed to Author note 2. If not, all reviews are welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read my shitty little chapter.

**Author note 1:** I came back to in September promising to provide regular updates once again, to advance my stories and not leave you hanging for months on end. Sadly, other things have gotten in the way of that. My computer died at one point so I lost my writing. I've had a fuck tonne load of writers block with Shadow, which is disappointing because I have up to chapter 13 planned out. Then I was bedridden for a few weeks with illness.

At that time I had to decide what the hell I'm going to do with my sorry graduated ass...and I came to the conclusion that I'm going to take a punt at being a writer. And I don't mean fanfiction...I mean, if 50 Shades of Shit can become the bestselling novel ever, I'm sure I can write something better. Seriously...that shit is woeful to read. But as you can see by reading this chapter, and my other stuff, I'm not that well versed in fictional literature. I'm a historian, and almost everything I've read has towed the line of my degree...aside from manga.

And so my first call was to start reading some fiction novels. Instantly I shelved my fics and put all my time into reading. I want to write in the field of science fiction or fantasy, as that is what has and always will be my greatest love. So I started reading. 1984 was a start, then I looked at some Star Wars novellas, Bane being the first, then Revan (favourite SWs character), and finally Darth Plagueis. An exceptional book, I'd recommend it to anyone. And since then I've read countless others, but currently my nose is stuck in the second novel in 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series (Game of Thrones to TV watchers). There are 5 books, and it's taken me like 2 weeks to get half way through the second, so I thought I'd at least try and post something now, rather than make you wait another month or two.

Then of course is setting the time aside to plan out my original idea...which is coming along to a decent level. I have a back story, settings, notions of themes, many many more things still to map out, but the first signs of something concrete are starting to form. I might even write a prologue before Christmas, but I'm holding off on that in case the world ends...I'd much rather be chilling with a pizza and reading a good book than slaving over my keyboard. Haha. But yeah, that's basically everything I need to say on those matters. I just hope you lovely awesome people who actually like what I write can forgive me if I don't update that often, who knows, next year or the year after you could actually be paying to read my terrible fiction rather than having it on here for free. Haha!

**Author Note 2:** So back to this. Firstly, the name I have given Naruto. Firstly, I hate brandishing Naruto with the bog standard that he is associated with...names with 'fox' or synonyms of 'Uzumaki' i.e. Maelstrom etc. I don't really have anything against the names, I just tend to end up reading fic after fic with their own take on a near similar codename or whatever.

So I give you Avarus, taken from the word avarice. I'd like to hope from the way I have written that chapter that the overriding factor of Naruto being in that position to say yes to Bane would be because of his outright desire for power. Think of Greed the Avaricious from FMA. Naruto does not want everything in the world, but he desires to protect his precious people and Konoha above all else. 'The Protector', well...that aspect is something that will come into play with his moral compass...Sith are selfish...Naruto is most definitely not. On the face of it he wants power to protect others, but no doubt he has a deep seated selfish desire for power too. Is moral dilemma and ambiguity to feature in this novel? Objectionable actions that cause him to rethink what he's doing? I think so.

I made it pretty obvious who the Sith would be – at least I hope I did – but I thought I'd save it to the end of the chapter to reveal. I've had this idea in my head since I read the Bane Trilogy a few months ago. The guy is a beast. I would pay handsomely to see a Bane movie...hell, I'd write a screenplay for it. Haha.

**SPOILER ALERT** Yes, I know Bane died when he failed to use the essence transfer on Zannah, but I much preferred to leave the ending with the thought of Zannah's twitching hand as a sign of Bane's victory. I honestly thought that he had won, and when he retorted to Cognus that it was Zannah, Bane was just hiding the fact that he had been successful as to not taint the Rule of Two. But alas, I went onto Google and looked it up and Karpyshyn announced that he had lost. A shame. *SPOILER END*

I don't intend to follow the canon of Naruto with this fic. There will be no 'Naruto reappears 2 years later and saves Gaara from Deidara and Sasori then just falls in line with team seven, secretly holding the powers of the Sith in reserve'. And to that point, I won't be putting Avarus into the Star Wars Galaxy anytime soon...it all depends on how far I get with this story. But the fact I've mentioned him being born in 47BBY allows for me to place him into the Star Wars movie timeline in his mid teens should I see the opportunity.

I have a history for the planet and its chakra wielding inhabitants mapped out, so that will come into play in following chapters. I've also alluded to 'others' who have been to Bane before...some you may expect, others most likely not.

But one thing I wish to say is this (like I've not just said like 50 things): Just because I'm having Naruto train under a Sith Lord does not necessarily mean he will be *evil*. I like Sith lords, they make for a much more interesting read than Jedi's in the most part.

Well, anyway...you deserve a medal if you read all of that. If you didn't, you were probably the wise ones. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Feel free to check out my other fics. Peace.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or Star Wars

**Author Note: **Long time no see, sorry. That's about all I have to offer. Here's the second chapter. If you like what you read, let me know in the reviews. Any Queries either leave in the reviews or pm. Thanks.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Heroes were revered, respected by most, and fully entitled to go about their business as they pleased. That was the main perk of being a member of the most legendary trio in history. He may have been born in the village hidden in the leaves of the dense forests of Hi no Kuni, but Jiraiya was able to play out his role as the wandering hermit. There were occasions where he did not visit his homeland for years at a time, yet he found walking along the dirt road leading towards the gates of Konoha to have become a regular occurrence of late.

Still, he never chose the thirty foot solid oak archway as an entry point. If he did, then the Old Man would know he was here. There were many other ways to get into the village, most only he knew about...at least, he hoped. However, since Tsunade's appointment as Hokage, he often found himself obeying the courtesies of the village; signing in at the main gate as with all the other travellers, and making haste to visit his oldest acquaintance. Today, the mischievous little pervert within had taken control.

His most recent fact-finding mission had been a bust, as had the previous two before that. Since dragging Tsunade back to the village to take up her rightful post, Jiraiya had been on no fewer than three reconnaissance missions in search of Orochimaru, with a further two looking into the whereabouts of this so-called 'Akatsuki'. The frantic rush had left him without the luxuries he felt most at home with.

'_I feel like doing a bit of research.'_ Jiraiya smiled as he thought about starting his next novel upon seeing the daunting stone walls of Konoha come into view. A swirl of leaves were all that was left in his wake, disappearing into thin air from the middle of the heavy trodden earth of the main access route towards the largest Shinobi village in the Elemental continent.

It wasn't long before he found himself in the spring district, his geta clacking against the wooden planks of the bridge that separated him from his target. _'Oh Kami let it be a good day. Some young busty wenches is all I ask for, oh great Ero Kami.'_ He wasn't disappointed.

Those five minutes were the best of his entire month. That was until he slipped on a wet stone and ended up making so much noise when falling over that it scared the women away. A dainty hand helped him up from his sprawled position between a fence and a bush. "Why thank you, sweet lady." Jiraiya put on his most charming voice as he gripped onto the hand.

As their hands met, he was instantly alarmed. What looked like a soft, petite hand was actually a lot coarser then he had expected, callused, worn like leather. They were the hands of a physician. Jiraiya felt uneasy. A quick glance up from the wrist almost gave him a heart attack as pale green flashed across his eyes. When he finally got to his feet he tried to pull his hand away, but the grip was far too strong. It felt like his hand was in a vice. Resigned to his fate, the aging Sannin raised his eyes...only far enough to gaze into the woman's inexplicably large bosom. "Tsunade, I can ex-" Before he could finish his sentence a right hook caught him in the jaw.

The pain of the sudden impact surprised him. Not because she hit him, but because it had been such a weak effort. If she had put an ounce of effort into it then Jiraiya was certain he wouldn't still be standing right now. "What's happened?" For the first time he looked at her face. _'She's been crying.' _He eyes were puffy and bloodshot. Her face was haggard; her lip was raw as if she'd been constantly chewing on it.

"It's Naruto," was all she said as she let go of his hand. Before Jiraiya could reply she had already turned away, walking off towards the Hokage Tower. His heartstrings panged in a nostalgic fashion. He had no idea what had happened, but the pain in his chest grew that very instant. Solemnly, Jiraiya followed Tsunade away from the hot springs. With every step his geta grew louder, reverberating inside his head like a hammer. He already knew that he had lost another student.

* * *

Days seemed to pass as he sat cross-legged on the cold, dusty cavern floor. However, what felt like days was merely hours. Still, he was steadily improving on his meditation techniques. Avarus had warned Darth Bane during their first training session that he was incapable of staying still for too long. In his post-academy days along with the rest of Team Seven, the blonde apprentice had found that he was a quick study. However, in his current environment he had found that he was even faster than first thought. Being force-choked by a hazy apparition could do that to you.

This was their eighth day of training, and Avarus was still on his first drill of the day. It had begun the same way each morning since he had bent his knee to the hulking beast of a man – well, ghost. Meditation was important to all force users. It puzzled him at first, as the very notion of meditation went against the first line of the Code of the Sith. _Peace is a lie, there is only passion._ Avarus could think of nothing more tranquil than meditating. He learned the hard way not to question his master's teachings.

He spent his time attempting to centre his power in some vain attempt to appease his Master. It was most easily done by reflecting on the Code. His perception of the words remained limited and he was still no closer to understanding how he subconsciously knew the passage. Latent memories were slipping through his fingertips every time he grasped. Darth Bane had no interest in making it easy for him. _"I shall only reaffirm your findings, apprentice."_ That was all he said on the matter when approached by the child-come-Sith.

Avarus' inability to find answers in the recluses of his own mind purged the tranquillity from him. His meditation sessions always ended the same way. Anger. A build up of negative energy surged through him like a sea of lava running in his veins. _Peace is a lie, there is only passion._ Yet when he opened his eyes expecting to find the hardened stare of the bald behemoth, he was often greeted with an arguably more disturbing look of satisfaction. Though fearful in his actions, he somewhat felt pride each time he was greeted by that despicably frightening look, as opposed to the black abyss within the blue haze that greeted him when he had failed to even meditate correctly.

Yes, over the past eight days his internal reflections had taught him the truth behind the first line of the Code. Through such a serene act, all he found was pain. When the centre was calm, Avarus felt nothing. His ties to the force were indistinguishable from when he was a Shinobi. It was only through his frustrations at failing to find the right memory in his mind that the blonde apprentice felt the force resonating within. It burnt furiously like a pulsar in his chest. Anger fuelled his power, not peace.

He found himself living in his past. Pictures came and went in his mind, flickering in-and-out of existence behind his eyelids. Images twinkled in the darkness, coming into his full vision when he reached out for them.

He found himself watching on as a child huddled in some nameless alleyway, bloodied and bruised after another mob had taken their fancy at ending his life. Academy teachers who made it difficult for him to learn anything, often making fun of him, knocking him down even when he did something right. He felt the chill of night, droplets of blood falling on his face from above, the faintest hint of a woman's smiling face. A man draped in black, shrouded in darkness before a pile of bodies. He saw feet splashing through pools of blood made by the fresh corpses, working tirelessly to create new ones with his crimson blade. Pink hair swaying in the wind attached to a tirade of bile and hatred. The body of an old man who died protecting his village from someone he thought of like a son. Red eyes gazing through black flames, blood trickling from one eye as their star-like pupils pulsated in their sockets. He saw a world burning in a sea of flames raining down from the heavens. Yes, peace _is_ a lie, that was plain as day to him now.

The fervour welled up within. It manifested itself in the very form of the force. As his eyes opened this morning, the force lashed out. The tomb walls shook as the latent dust kicked up in a furious storm. All the debris around him flung away from him at such speed that the loose rocks rattled against the back wall in an instant. The pressure of the force was so strong that it burrowed into the ground beneath him. The visions had given haste to the rage that was building up inside him. He hated death. He despised the thought of losing people. Yet he found inside himself that he despised some of those he originally thought to protect.

His chest heaved as his short breaths erupted through his nose, inflaming his nostrils with each rasping cry for oxygen. Avarus had no idea his arms were outstretched, but instinctively he lowered them. Under the bright rays of the overhead lighting he could see his hands were _smoking_. He could feel them shaking, each cell contracting as the dark energy saturated them. "What in Kami's name was that?" He asked as he rose to his feet.

He was certain he'd been sat there for hours. His legs ached bitterly, even more so when he stumbled on the lip of earth he had not known was there. It quickly dawned on Avarus there was an indentation in the stone floor that had not been their when he had sat down.

Whilst stretching his aching body, the gruff voice of his Master called out to him. "A force wave. When at its largest capacity, such a technique is capable of destroying a small building, or decimating an entire platoon of soldiers." Avarus was expecting to see the undesirable gaze of satisfaction on his Master's face, but he was met with something even more worrying: a smile.

"During my days in the Sith Academy on Korriban, I found that it took many of the adepts weeks or even months just to move objects with their minds. You have not yet managed such a trivial feat, yet you can create a force wave with such a force you burrowed into the ground beneath you. Interesting, very interesting." Bane seemed deep in thought as he spoke. "The force was wise in guiding you towards me, apprentice."

"Yes, Master." The boy replied as he inclined his head briefly towards the apparition.

"What was it you were meditating on?" Darth Bane enquired.

At first, the boy formerly known as Uzumaki Naruto was unsure on how to answer. He wasn't entirely sure what it was that came into his mind. "Visions, at least, I think they were visions." Eventually he found his voice. "Some were memories of my childhood. Others were of my time in my old team. The rest, I have no idea." Avarus sounded somewhat uncertain as he spoke, readily picked up by the human shaped blue aura.

"The force grants us clarity of our past, but can also offer glimmers of the shape of things to come. Perhaps you were granted insight to your future." Bane mused as he glided across the well-lit room towards his student. "What was it you saw?"

"Death," Avarus replied sombrely. "I saw a man with a crimson blade of pure energy cutting through men and women, some in plain clothes, others in Shinobi uniforms. I saw a pair of eyes with star-like pupils in a sea of red, shrouded in black flames. I could hear millions of people screaming as their planet was set ablaze by giant spaceships. A man sat on a black throne atop a stone step before a five-towered temple, with a pile of bodies at his feet." He hesitated. "And I could see a baby being protected by a woman in the dead of night, caked in her blood from a wound in her chest."

Darth Bane looked amused. "Such things are understandable, apprentice. The force grants us possibilities of the future, yet they remain uncertain. Your actions may prevent some of those things in your coming days...others may reinforce them." The masterful ghost let the words sink in. "Some of those visions are of the past, not the future. Trust your instincts and you shall know it to be true."

Instinctively, Avarus opened his mouth. "The final image was of my birth night. I was the child...the woman protecting me was my mother." He spoke with clarity. "She was my mother."

"Your instincts do not betray you, Avarus. She protected you, just as you plan to protect others with your new power." That made Avarus smile. For the first time in a week, he felt like that brash child with the constant grin. Bane saw that, internally gleaming. "Of course, you're most likely wondering who it was who killed your loving mother on the night she birthed you."

"**Don't!" **A growl called out from the recesses of his mind to the amusement of the Dark Lord of the Sith.

"What did you do you bastard fox?!" Avarus screamed in utter rage.

"Why, he killed your parents, my apprentice." Behind the haze of his non-corporeal form, Bane smiled. The serenity he briefly felt in his boyish charge had all but disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.

"Bastard!" Within the depths of the dungeon in his mind, Avarus was a boisterous flame of raw power. "You! After all this time, _you _are the reason I've had such a shitty fucking life - I'm gunna kill you! I'm gunna break your fucking neck!"

"**Listen to -" **But he didn't. Avarus had no intention of listening to a word the deceitful, murderous demon that lived inside his mind had to say. There was no reprieve for him this time. He had no idea why, but the child clad in his orange drabs thrust his arm out in front of him, cupping his fingers as if they were pressed around someone's neck. The force was gripping his fingers, just as they were gripping the Kyubi's neck.

The beastly fox tried to speak, but no sound came out. For a moment all that the demon could do was gaze into the dark yellow eyes of his jailor as the tumultuous power oozed from him. The only thing that could stop the force from choking the life out of him was a dense pulse of chakra. As it devoured Avarus like a Tsunami, stale air was able to fill the Kyubi's lungs once again as the invisible grip around its throat was gone. **"I was being controlled by someone. I had no control of my body." **Kyubi's booming voice rasped in his throat as he spoke. He was fairly certain that he could not die under such circumstances, yet he felt infinitely weaker nonetheless.

"I don't believe a word you say." Avarus said inaudibly, trying to control his breathing as he mustered up the strength to stand. His tirade against the demon fox had left him empty. He didn't wait for a reply, finding himself back on the tomb floor. It took a few moments to gain his composure, before returning to his feet. Without saying a word to the phantom before him, Avarus walked towards the back wall, running his fingers along the stone to find the hidden button that opened the door to the rest of the complex.

After their initial conversation, Bane showed his new apprentice that this place was more than just some old relic. The feeble torches that surrounded the dome-shaped room were extinguished, replaced by a heavy-duty light fitted into the high-ceiling that provided much greater illumination. The walls were full of glyphs, scripture Naruto still had no idea how to read or comprehend, despite being able to see it in its entirety.

After some questions about what it all meant, Naruto quickly regretted it. One of the glyphs was in fact a Star Map, showing the rough position of the planet in relation to other nearby systems within the known Galaxy. It had taken a long time to sink in that there were _trillions_ of sentient beings living on thousands of planets in this Galaxy. Although apprehensive at first, when proof was provided the naive little boy accepted it.

Other segments were reserved for different areas on the planet that showed locations of interest. Yet the maps were in a language and design that he could not understand, though over the course of his time there he had discovered a number of useful things. Firstly, the language of the scripture was dubbed 'basic' by his Master, yet he couldn't fathom as to why because Avarus found it nigh impossible to learn. He had picked up a few choice words, such as greetings and essentials such as 'food' and 'sleep', but the language was still unknown to him. Secondly, the main section of the scripture, that bore a different language to the rest of the writing, showed a known history of the Sith. Where the 'basic' was legible, although difficult, the glyphs were not even recognisable as words. 'The tongue of the Sith', Bane had called it. His Master also told him that he would not willingly share the history, though he would teach him to understand the ancient language in time. Though he did say that the history only covered to the point of Darth Bane's death – a lot more needed to be added to the history considering he claimed to have died over nine _hundred_ standard years ago.

All this talk of different planets and invisible powers wielded by warrior priests was too much for him to handle. In the one and only time so far that the beastly male had shown any form of compassion, he directed Avarus to the hidden switch fitted into the steel plaque – the only thing in the entire room written in the native tongue of this planet. As he pressed the switch into the wall, not a great deal happened at first. A mechanical whirring sound carried through the dense stone, as suddenly a block of stone lowered into the floor, presenting the boy with another narrow corridor. About ten metres down, it split into two tunnels – one that inclined, another that declined. He was told to take the lower passage, where he was directed towards the barracks where surprisingly, there were still usable beds. Two other rooms alighted from the passage, the first appeared to be a medical bay. Avarus _hated _hospitals, so he had no intentions of ending up in there. The other room was a library, a repository of all the knowledge that Darth Bane had amassed during his years as a living sentient.

As the stone receded into the floor, Avarus took the inclining passageway. Today he had no desire to delve into the archives.

* * *

"What do you mean, 'I couldn't find any trace of him'? Kakashi, you're supposed to be one of the best trackers in Konoha!" Jiraiya fumed as he stood in front of the Hokage's desk.

"I mean, there was nothing." The Copy-Ninja replied soberly. "Pakuun tracked Naruto and Sasuke to the Valley of the End. There was evidence of a battle, but the heavy rain masked their trails."

Tsunade rustled through a draw beneath the table, before slamming something onto the desk with a notable twang. "This was all that was left in the Valley. As to whose it is, we can't be certain."

Jiraiya looked over the scarred piece of metal. A Hitai-ite with the symbol of the leaf etched into it – the one thing all Shinobi shared in the village – a massive score across the Konoha emblem.

"It's not Naruto's. That much I'm certain of." A pensive voice called out behind the Legendary Sannin. "The cloth is a different colour to that of Naruto's, and it's much newer. Naruto carries mine own Hitai-ite. Besides, Naruto would not let it out of his sight, let alone defile it. He worked too hard to graduate from the Academy."

"I agree with Iruka. The headband is most likely Sasuke's. He could have discarded it, or had it forced away from him during the battle." Kakashi reinforced the Chuunin instructor's words.

"Either way, there were no bodies at the scene, so there can only be two conclusions. One, Sasuke defeated Naruto, whom fell into the river and was swept downstream, destroying all trace of him. Two, Naruto and Sasuke reconciled and left together in search of Orochimaru." Tsunade managed as she took a swig from the bottle of saké settled on her desk.

"..._or_ three, Naruto defeated Sasuke and they both ended up in the water." Jiraiya offered.

"It's no use, we've already checked. The first thing I did after reaching the waterfall was to send out the squad of ANBU that accompanied me to follow the river until they reached the border. Two of my hounds went with them, and there wasn't a scrap of evidence of either Naruto or Sasuke."

"Did you check the nearby villages?"

"Every one of them, Jiraiya-sama." Another voice entered the conversation from the embankment of seating. He adorned the standard garb for a Konoha ANBU, mask, white cloak, and a rather peculiar metallic head guard that fitted around his mask. "There was no sign of them, anywhere."

"That's not good enough! There has to be _something_ to go on." Jiraiya argued, almost pleadingly. He was met by looks of an equally desperate measure, somewhat dampened by eight days of discussion on this matter.

"I can vouch for Tenzou's abilities. After all, I trained him myself." Hatake Kakashi called out from the side of the Hokage. Jiraiya gave him a venomous look, but quickly averted his gaze when he saw the distant stare in the silver-haired Shinobi's single eye. _"He's in the same position as I am, except he's lost two students, not just one." _Jiraiya thought.

"I placed a number of my wood-clones along the river banks as a precaution. They will relay any information to me directly." Tenzou added just in case the Legendary Sannin felt he was not thorough enough in his search. To this Jiraiya only nodded. Out of the bleakness of the situation, the aging hermit had a brainwave.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" After biting his finger, Jiraiya slammed his palm into the ebony desk of the lady Hokage. For a second, both she and Shizune grew a look of utter horror. If he summoned Gamabunta in this room then everyone would be crushed. But their moment of panic subsided when a sagely old toad, no bigger than the bottle of saké resting on the table, appeared from beneath the blanket of smoke.

"Oh, Jira-chan. It's not very often you have time to summon old Pa-chan. I must tell Ma-chan that I've seen you." The elderly toad looked at the troubled face of his pupil, before realising his surroundings. "Is something the matter, Jira-chan? Hokage-chan?"

"I need a favour," Jiraiya acted seriously, he needed to. "Can you do a reverse summoning for me?" At this point he loosed the twine around his chest, dropping the over-sized red scroll he always seemed to carry on his person to the floor with an audible weight behind it.

Instinctively the toad jumped down off the table to inspect the unravelling scroll.

He stopped at the most recent name on the summoning contract. "Uzumaki Naruto," he inspected the name almost knowingly. There had been dozens of contractors to the Toad summons in the past, but there were only two active; Jiraiya, and his newest student. "Has something happened to Mina-chan's boy?" The elderly toad enquired.

Instantly there was a ruckus from behind on the back benches. Murmurs and whispers broke out all over the conference room as the previously quiet civilian and shinobi councils heard the words. Tsunade could only assume they were squawking about Minato's addition to the conversation. Discussions of such were taboo in this village, but that meant nothing to an animal summon. Without hesitation the heavy bosomed Hokage irritably cleared her throat. Silence fell.

"That's what we're here to find out, Pa-san. Naruto has been missing for over a week. The quick and easy way to decide if anything had happened to Naruto would be to attempt the reverse summoning technique."

"yes, yes. I may be old, Jira-chan, but I still have my wits about me." The toad cleared his throat before slamming his webbed appendage into the floor. "Reverse Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Nothing happened.

"Reverse Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The toad repeated the technique, but to the same result. Jiraiya dropped to his knees. The sagely toad patted him on his thigh with a gentle "I'm sorry."

"I don't get it, what does this mean?" A portly middle-aged male from the civilian side of the council questioned along with the backing of a number of confused voices. "Shouldn't the demon brat be here?"

It took all the strength of Shikaku's shadow binding technique to cut short Jiraiya's instantaneous assault. Even though he would gladly have let him go about his business, Jiraiya would've been in serious trouble for killing the representative for the mercantile district in front of so many witnesses. The overweight, balding, disgrace of a civilian wasn't even able to flinch at the speed that the legendary Sannin launched his entire body at him, two rows up and ten metres away from his kneeled position. His outstretched fist was inches away from hitting him square in the nose.

"It means he's dead," a wispy voice cut in before Jiraiya could verbally tear apart the feeble creature now quivering before him. "The only way to halt a reverse summoning is to be no longer part of the living." The aged figure of one of Konoha's head council members spoke out.

"Or there is something blocking the summoning," another called out from the Shinobi council.

"Oh, that is quite impossible. In the same way that a human can summon their contracted animal at any point, in any situation, the opposite must also be correct." The elderly male covered in bandages reiterated, before standing up for the entire council chamber to see. "Not only has our lady Hokage failed to retrieve the sole-surviving Uchiha within our village, she has also lost the village's strongest weapon. What do you have to say for yourself, Senju-san?" Danzo twisted the knife, baiting the Hokage into action.

"The so-called Uchiha prodigy chose to leave this village on his own accord, and with the cursed seal given to him by Orochimaru, Naruto was no match for him. I sent out five shinobi after Sasuke, and only one was still able to walk. Three suffered severe injuries and the other –" Tsunade's whole body was heaving, the sweat rolled off her brow as she failed to bring herself to say that Naruto was dead. _"All he wanted was to be the Hokage...Damn him, damn that fucking necklace!"_ She wanted to cry. Yet she held herself together.

"If you knew the severity of the situation, why did you send out a team full of green-bloods? Your actions have left Konoha in its weakest position in two decades." Danzo had worked out this conversation days in advance, Tsunade could see that now. He had every intention of undermining her in this meeting.

"Look outside that window, Danzo-_san_, what do you see?" Tsunade replied venomously without reprieve. "Half the village is in need of repair. We lost ten percent of our military force when Orochimaru invaded this city. Maybe if you and your ROOT had gotten off their arses during the battle the situation would be far less grave, and I wouldn't have had to send out all the Jounin to generate revenue on high-end missions to enact the costly repairs. There was no other choice in the matter, damn it. It was this, or let him go unopposed." The civilians muttered begrudgingly up in the rafters. Some shouted abuse, others called for her to be replaced, only to be shot down by the voices of the Clan heads.

Danzo smirked.

"Save it, Hime. Let the weasel have his moment." Jiraiya seemed a lot calmer than moments before. "Add Uchiha Sasuke to the bingo book as an S-ranked criminal. Deserter and killer of fellow Shinobi should suffice." Shikaku had unwoven his shadow binding as Jiraiya's clogged footwear clacked on the wooden floor. He was walking towards the door. "And don't forget to do a service for Naruto. Something big and bold so Minato and Kushina can see it from above. I'm off for a stroll."

Tears streamed down his face as he opened the double doors into the corridor, before slamming them shut behind him. The only solace he received was the tumultuous screams of justification from the civilian council. They had hated that child for so long, and now he was gone, Jiraiya could finally scream it from the rooftops how pitiful their village had become. He smiled slightly as he heard the sound of a window smashing, but he could only hold it until his bottom lip began to quiver. "I hope that chair didn't have anyone sat in it." Jiraiya said out loud to himself as he walked down the stairs. He had no desire to stay in this village any longer.

He could feel a trip coming on. There was some nice scenery along that river, he could remember it now. He might even take in a new country for a while, just until he was certain he had enough research for his new novel.

* * *

It had hit him so hard that Avarus struggled to breathe. It felt like his soul was being ripped from his chest, not once, but twice. Nothing like that had ever happened before. At first he thought it was something to do with the force, but he quickly wizened against such thoughts. Either way, it had disrupted his training. The young Sith lay flat on his back, staring into the brightly lit room.

"Is something wrong, my Apprentice?" The see-through being known as Bane enquired from afar. It was not often that he had witnessed Avarus slack off from his training. "You seem, troubled."

His vision blurred as he looked away from the light above, taking a moment to refocus before he could make out the silhouette of his Master. "Something just happened to my body," Avarus breathed heavily. "It was like, like someone had tried to reach into my body and pull out my soul."

He sounded very unsure of himself, like he was uttering complete madness. In the silence, he managed to haul himself onto his knees, resting his training blade across his lap as he slipped into a state of meditation. No answers came to him, but he managed to regain control of his breathing before returning to his feet. He looked over to his Master for advice, but the robed figure gave a disinterested gaze, which told Avarus all he needed to know.

As he moved back into his defensive stance, his arms felt heavy. Whatever this was, it had taken much more out of him than he thought, yet he persevered. "One," he uttered, placing the obscure metallic weapon arched over his head, "two," before slamming it down in an arced trajectory. "Three," shifted his feet and withdrew the blade so that it covered his chest before a rapid "four, five, six." The parry fluidly transferred into a quick combination of angled slashes before a final stab. After the stab was complete, Avarus moved back to his starting point before repeating the drill half a dozen times, quickening the tempo after each completion.

It was only one of dozens of routines that Bane had instructed him on over the past couple of days. His Masters' early frustrations were gradually waning as Avarus was becoming more accustomed to such combat. In his previous years as Uzumaki Naruto, he had sacrificed Kenjutsu for focus on his Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. His Taijutsu was definitely not up to scratch, but his destructive power with the Rasengan along with his control over the Kage Bunshin and transformation techniques were not to be reckoned with. Yet Bane had previously noted the importance of the art of the blade for a Sith, presenting him with images of his lightsaber in the archives. _"The blade is energy created by super-heating a specific crystal, held within a containment field. The colour of the blade is dependent on the crystal used, and the design of the hilt defers the angle of the blade, the length, and the number of blades." _Thinking back on that lesson only reaffirmed one of the things he had thought on for the past hour of blade work. _"Is that what I will become, the man on a throne made by dozens of bodies?"_

At first, progress was slow. His movements were clumsy, and it was clear to Bane that his new apprentice had never wielded a weapon remotely like a lightsaber. Avarus had been directed to a room in the archives that contained dated parchments on lightsaber stances and techniques. Although illegible to the untrained mind of the twelve-year-old, the parchments often came with visual representations of stances, which were bolstered by the words of Darth Bane.

Despite being hampered with the clumsiness of growth, and relatively useless with the vibroblade that he practiced with, Avarus was exceedingly agile. The chakra that flowed naturally through his body offered great speed of movement, and along with his unorthodox fighting style, allowed for him to be quite a prodigy with the blade...if he didn't stab himself before he got good enough to use his swordsmanship proficiently in battle.

It had astounded Bane during their first drill session at how Avarus had previously trained. Initially the former Dark Lord of the Sith wanted to see what he could do, and he wasn't disappointed. In the blink of an eye, the enlarged sparring arena was filled with one hundred replicas of the young boy in his orange tatters. Amused at first at the depths of Sith Sorcery being so unknowingly affiliated into the 'Shinobi' system, even Bane was amazed when he watched one of the supposed 'Doppelganger' strike a clean blow on another. He sat there for a full hour as the century of clones hacked away at each other with fist and kicks, kunai and Rasengan, until only the original remained. The rest had disappeared in smoke, and when Avarus remained, he hadn't even broken a sweat. _"Yes, if he is as hard-working and dedicated to the ways of the Sith as he is to that of the Shinobi, it will not be long before he will out-weigh my previous apprentice."_

When he asked Avarus about the knowledge he received from the battle, he was amused to find that this technique of creating clones, actually increased his progress time dramatically. On their second day of training, Bane taught his new Apprentice some of the most basic forms of the blade...it was a long, long day. He applied the same sequences on the third day, but produced another ten blades, and asked him to create ten clones to wield them. Despite being slow at first, the progress at the end of the day was phenomenal.

On their eighth day of training, Bane was almost proud to say that his apprentice was at least passable with a blade, though he couldn't imagine he would be able to defeat the weakest of Padawan in close combat, should he ever meet one on this desolate rock. What was eight days training, compared to eight years or more? Yet, he could feel his potential. Given a couple of months, he'd be well beyond the standard of his self, had he of remained a Shinobi. And with the benefits of his training technique, he could feasibly complete ten years worth of training in less than a year.

Bane sat on as he watched the original Avarus, still clad in his soiled orange garments, run through the basic forms, surrounded by a circle of his clones. It was nostalgic to see so many practicing drills in one space. It briefly reminded him of his stay on Korriban, hauling his blade through the pack of acolytes under the watchful tutelage of Master Kas'im, but such thoughts were swept away as he watched his apprentice's clones dispel in an instant. Avarus convulsed, clutching his chest as he dropped to the floor. "Is something wrong, my Apprentice?" Bane called, but he already knew what had troubled him. It had been a long time ago, but the same thing had happened, on two occasions.

When he had taken over Darth Zannah's body during their fateful duel on the plains of Astapos, Bane claimed all of her knowledge, most notably her ability to utilise the old arts of the Sith, that was, Sith Sorcery. When he and Cognus, his new apprentice, arrived on this desolate, relatively unpopulated planet in the outer rim territories, he had made certain to utilise one of Zannah's rituals to protect their selves from being located by the Jedi. It worked most effectively, too effectively in fact. Due to the bastardised nature of chakra stemming from the powers of the force, certain Shinobi techniques were also externally shielded from reaching inside their hideout, most notably, summoning techniques. "You seem, troubled."

Bane made no attempt to tell his struggling apprentice. The hulking figure of the Sith Lord had warned the boy that this would not be easy, and he would only clarify information that Avarus has learned through the products of his training. When no such knowledge came his way, Bane discarded the moment, and allowed the blonde-haired neophyte to continue with his drills.

Fatigue had clearly struck, yet the boy continued nonetheless, if anything, he got quicker as time elapsed. Bane could see the determination in his eyes, those furious orbs that burned more brightly every time he had to dig inside his self to find the power to strive on. Yes, Bane had learned quickly that the key to being a successful Sith was to utilise the power from within, to rely solely on your own determinism. Avarus had that in spades. _"In time, he will become more powerful than he can possibly imagine. I will make sure he stays true to the path." _Bane mused as he watched his Apprentice summersault in the air, completing a double-handed slash that buried the vibroblade into the durasteel floor.

"That is enough for today, my Apprentice. Leave thirty clones to duel and follow me to the archives." Bane did not wait for a reply, merely disappearing in an instant, leaving Avarus alone in the cold, grey amphitheatre. It was strange having no natural light in the room, but the overhead lighting cascaded off the obscure metal with an unappealing dank hue of grey. The room was unsightly, devoid of colour, and full of cracks and shatter points from where force attacks and blades had struck the surface. With a cross of his fingers, Avarus summoned a score and a half of replicas, before throwing his blade to another.

As he turned he was greeted with the calming sound of metal striking metal, and before he had moved ten paces a flash of memories were absorbed into his mind. It frustrated him greatly to see how quickly his clone was defeated. Its guard was weak, easily penetrated by an unorthodox slash from another clone. It angered him at how weak he still was. _Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength, through strength I gain victory..._ he reflected on the words as he walked along the declining corridor towards the lower segment of the facility.

* * *

"Jiraiya-sama," a voice called out from behind the briskly walking Sannin. Jiraiya had left Konoha almost as soon as he had arrived. The second he had left the Hokage tower the only thing in his sights was the main gate.

The voice was so recognisable that the grey-haired wordsmith carried on his quickened stride. All he did to signify he had heard them was to throw a hand sharply in the air before returning it to his side. A few moments later, the body attached to the voice was walking in his stride.

"Hokage-sama has asked me to accompany you." The male Jounin spoke again to weed out the silence.

"Ha, she knows I don't need a chaperone." If he wasn't so angry, Jiraiya would've stopped to laugh at the miserable attempt of a con. "Say it as it is, Kakashi."

Jiraiya caught the brooding figure begrudgingly gaze over to him, almost ashamed. "Okay, _I_ need to go with you." He finally said. "You clearly know something that I don't, and I need to know. I need to know I've not failed again."

"You can come along, but don't get in my way. If you hinder this, I'll have no qualms in making sure you can't copy anymore Jutsu." Before the Copy-nin could reply, the elder Shinobi suddenly leapt into the thick canopy, veering away from the dirt road at substantial speed.

It only took a moment for Kakashi to catch up, but he could already understand why the sudden change of pace. A swift set of hand signals from the Legendary Sannin told him that they were being tailed. The former ANBU sensed around him. _"Three...no, five." _They were well hidden, but keeping close enough quarters not to lose contact with their target. _"This stinks of Danzo_." Kakashi thought as he pushed on to keep pace with his comrade.

An hour had passed before they finally slowed. "They're still behind us." Kakashi whispered as he propped up against the taller Shinobi's shoulder. "Root," was all he got in reply as they wondered into a nameless cave that they came across. The heavens had opened suddenly, drowning them in leagues of rainfall in such a short amount of time. The tree canopy was becoming treacherous. Of course, before they headed for the cave they sent off dozens of clones, decoys in every direction. If they were as skilled as Kakashi believed then the simple trick would be futile, yet it was better than merely walking into the cave.

"Are we okay to stop here?" Kakashi urged.

"I don't see why not. If Naruto's where I think he is then a couple of hours won't hurt us." Jiraiya replied as he placed his summoning contract against the dank mossy wall of the cave, using it as a terribly uncomfortable cushion as he leaned against it.

"You," Kakashi hesitated, "you don't think he's dead? But, you seconded Danzo's remarks in the council chamber..." He trailed off.

"Don't get me wrong, brat. There is a ninety-nine percent chance that he is dead. If a contractor cannot be summoned by the animal with which he is tenured to, there can only be one cause."

"Yes, but then how can you sound so sure that he's alive?" Jiraiya could tell that the younger Shinobi was grasping at each shred of hope. He didn't want to fail again. The thought of losing another team would be too much for one of Konoha's veterans.

"You most of all should know how resilient that kid can be. He's the most inexplicably resourceful shinobi I've ever met." Kakashi nodded in compliance. "But my faith comes from two bits of information, one that was presented in that farcical council session. The other, well, that's something only _I _know about."

That intrigued the silver-haired Cyclops greatly. He quickly glanced out into the blanket of rain shattering down from the heavens, flushing the area with Chakra to make sure there were no prying eyes before he sat down. "Through your spy network I take?

"Surprisingly, no. It happened when I was younger than you, some thirty years ago. We were in the middle of a conflict with Tsuchigakure. Sensei had taken command of the advanced division, holding off the enemy at the Valley of the End whilst the rest of the village could mobilise the garrison. They fought for two days, but with Sensei's forces outnumbered ten-to-one, they eventually succumbed. He held off their forces single-handed for about twenty minutes so that what was left of his division could retreat back to our main army. We came upon them in the forests and made quick work of them on our home terrain, but when we got to the valley there was no sign of him.

"We stayed there for four days. The whole army searched every nook and cranny for kilometres around, hell, we almost dredged the river. Yet, we did not find him. One of Hiruzen's brothers was also contracted to the Ape Clans, and summoned Enma to the End. He tried to reverse summon Sensei not once, but twice...all hope was lost and everyone headed back to the village to bury an empty casket. Because of my love for the Old Man, I lingered. I stayed there for two more days until one day, a dirty looking, wounded Hokage limped down the river bank."

"I remember this story from when I was in the Academy. The Sandaime had been knocked unconscious during the battle, and swept downstream a lot further than anyone had deemed possible. He was taken in by a small fishing community by the border, treated his wounds and he slowly made his way back to the village to find that his efforts had resulted in a major victory." Kakashi had no real love for history. The subject lulled in his mind and at the time he was extremely happy he had been fast-tracked through the system as a child. Yet he could tell that Namikaze Minato's greatest quote was about to come into play.

"What did Minato always tell you?" Kakashi smiled slightly as he knew this was coming.

"Look underneath the underneath," he replied.

"I was the only person who Sensei told about what had really happened. Frankly I didn't believe him. I thought he'd knocked his head and had somehow managed to get back, yet one day I followed what he told me. _"I awoke on the river bank, soaked to the bone, blood seeping from a gash on my arm. When I found my bearings I saw I was in a valley, surrounded by lifeless corpses of trees and deadened grass. It was like all the nutrients had been sapped out of the ground. I was weak, my wound infected, and I was starving. Luckily there was a cave there. I took shelter for a few days as I slowly healed my wounds. On the third day however, I collapsed, heaving in agony as something came over me. It was like someone had tried to reach into my body and pull out my soul, and it didn't just happen once, it happened twice. After I regained some strength I took my leave, making my way back up the river as quick as I could."_

"A couple of weeks later I decided to take a trip. I followed the river for the same amount of time he claimed it had taken him. For three days I ran down that river, almost as far as the border, and I found no such place. I was on the verge of turning back when a voice in my head urged me to head on, so I did. Another two days later I came across such a place: a scarred piece of land, some three hundred metres of death inside a valley. I was void of energy by the time I got there, but I found no cave to dwell in for the night. I headed back and asked him again, but he claimed to have forgotten about the cave, having suffered some form of amnesia after contracting a virus."

"So you believe the two times that he collapsed in that cave were due to Enma's reverse summons?" Kakashi queried, still slowly digesting the mass of information he was presented with.

"Exactly. If that cave exists, it could have been made of a stone that has properties of blocking out the summoning signal. If Naruto somehow ended up in that place and stumbled across the cave, then the summoning wouldn't work." Jiraiya sounded so certain of himself.

"It's a big _If_, Jiraiya-sama."

"Yes, but checking this theory out is a lot more productive than the alternative. You know as well as I do that Uzumaki Naruto is too important to be just given up on with circumstantial evidence picked up by Shinobi loyal to a craven fool who wants to sit at the top of the tree."

"Tenzou is no man of Danzo's that much I can assure you. He was my ANBU partner and I personally trained him."

"Even so, you've been out of that line of work for a year now, things can change." Jiraiya urged solemnly.

Kakashi refused to pay that any mind, focussing on the fact the rain had subsided. Their pursuers were hidden outside, that much Kakashi could sense, yet they remained at a safe distance so he was fairly certain that their conversation had not been heard. He jumped up, heading towards the outside world before a heavy hand gripped onto his shoulder.

"Decoy first, Hatake." Jiraiya whispered as a replica of the aging shinobi appeared besides him. With a swift set of seals, Kakashi produced his own, before allowing them to set off in their stead.

Jiraiya masked their presence within the cave under a genjutsu. To the world outside the cave it would appear as though the real Kakashi and Jiraiya had left the cave moments before, blissfully confident that they had shaken their pursuers. They sat and waited, catching three blurs shoot past the cave in pursuit. Moments seemed to pass as the final two lingered behind. _"At least they don't underestimate us." _Kakashi mused.

"They've been told to take every precaution. They aren't your run-of-the-mill trackers, possibly a Hyuga, at least an Inuzuka or Aburame."

"So, what do we do? Wait for them to move on, or attack Konoha Shinobi?" Kakashi questioned uncertainly. One option could delay them for hours, the other could have them in Shinobi Court on treasonous charges.

"Well I don't plan on sitting in here all day, besides, Danzo wouldn't dare press charges when his men are following us on an unauthorised mission." Jiraiya grumbled as he reached down to the leather binding around his right thigh.

"Senbon," Kakashi queried as he eyed the two silver needles sticking out between his knuckles. "Three hundred says you miss at least one." The copy-nin smirked as the aged Shinobi lined up his shot from cave entrance.

"Easy money," he jested as he set to release as Kakashi knocked off his preparations with a "no kills" comment. That momentarily unnerved the Sannin, before loosing his small barrage. The metallic shards whistled through the still air, followed seconds later by two heavy thuds onto the sodden earth below.

Kakashi made quick work of checking the two bodies. A voice screamed in his mind to take off their white, plain masks to confirm their identities, but he chose not to, leaving the unconscious 'ANBU' on the sopping turf. "Two clean shots, both in the pressure point."

"Never bet against a Sannin," Jiraiya chimed, "...well, unless it's Tsunade." He laughed, and then he was gone again. In a heartbeat Kakashi was hard on his heels. "Next stop, Valley of the End."

* * *

"_...of the few Force Users to acquire the ranks of both, Jedi Master, and Dark Lord of the Sith, Revan was at various points in his lifetime both, the defender of the galaxy, as well as the harbinger of its destruction. It is told that the battles that he participated in were decided by the side that Revan fought for. Such were the greatness of his powers that he led the Republic to an unforeseeable victory in the Mandolorian War, before advancing into the Unknown Territories with the remainder of his forces to battle a greater evil. _

"_Upon his return some five years later, Darth Revan carved a path of death and destruction throughout the outer-rim, right into the Core Territories. Unbeknownst to the Jedi Council at the time, such an attack was a forewarning to a greater evil approaching on the horizon. The 'Sith' army that Darth Revan brought with him was filled with human Sentients, relatively inept in the Force. Upon his return to the Light-Side of the Force, Master Revan led a small wave of Jedi into a Space Station known as 'Star Forge', a factory used to create Sith Battle-Cruisers and Battledroids. When victory was achieved with the destruction of the factory, the Jedi granted Revan with honours for his role in the Sith Wars, but later relinquished his role in the Council to lay claims of marriage to fellow Jedi, Bastilla Shaan. _

"_A number of years later, Revan once again delved into the Unknown Territories in search of the power that managed to turn him to the Dark-Side. Along with Canderous Ordo, a friend who later became Mandolore the Preserver over the great warrior clans, and a former General during the Mandolorian Wars, codename, 'The Exile', Revan embarked on a journey to the edges of the known galaxy, where only Canderous returned. Revan was lost, and the only information that could be offered was that of a search for the 'True Sith' Emperor, whom lurked in hiding within the darkness of the Unknown Territories. _

"_For years the Jedi waited, but the impending threat of the 'True Sith' never arrived, until they least expected it, some two-hundred years later. Answers of Revan's disappearance surfaced during the period of war within the Republic. Upon attempting to kill the Emperor, a young Sith turned on the Master Jedi and The Exile, killing her, whilst imprisoning Revan for a duration of centuries. Through the means of technologies utilised by the red-skinned Sith Race, Revan survived for almost three hundred years in a hibernate state. Revan did not die during his resurrection during the War, but it is said that he 'disappeared into a light'. The final chapters of Revan, Master of Jedi, Dark Lord of the Sith, may yet to be written, as it is unknown whether he truly lives."_

"Woah," the near-shocked expression of Avarus was that of a child, yet one would expect the child-like tendencies of a twelve year old to seep through the exterior of a budding sword of the Dark-Side. "This guy is awesome," the boy-Sith exclaimed as he put aside the darkened tome before him, immediately picking up a second tome titled 'General Revan and the Mandolore War'.

"That is merely an overview of his achievements, my very young Apprentice," Bane cut in, "As a Dark Lord, it could be argued that the path I created for the Sith came from his rhetoric, some two-thousand years before I was born. Darth Revan was aware of the inherent weakness of the sharing of the Force, noting that limiting its hold to fewer people granted much greater strength to the individual. That is why I created the 'Rule of Two', and that is why the Sith will always conquer the Jedi, no matter how disparate the numbers between the two are."

"So, you're saying that two Sith, are as strong as the entire Jedi order?" Avarus frowned, "and how many Jedi are there, hundreds? Thousands?"

"During my years among the living, the Sith were as numerous as the Jedi, both curtailed regimented armies of thousands of warriors, though very few could be deemed 'true' wielders of the force."

"And now? How many do you feel?"

"One thing you must learn is that the Force grants many with power, but only a select few are ever deemed adept enough to be taught to use it correctly. The Jedi are weak in that fact. They like to take their apprentices young, as babies and younglings so that they can shape their malleable minds to their own indoctrinations. In my time, those who the Jedi did not take, many remained unknown faces in the plethora of the masses, though many joined the Sith. Nothing calls out to a sentient greater than the offer of power, though you would know all about that, Apprentice."

"Yes, Master." Avarus replied as he thought on his words. "Can you feel those who are stronger in the force, and those who are weaker?"

Bane was amused by this questioning. The boy was often eager to satiate his desires to learn more of the world beyond his own, but never with such enthusiasm about other force users. The hulking mountain could only assume he was trying to work out his visions. Bane had been granted similar visions by the Force. He knew that the man in the throne would not be his Apprentice. The sacking of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant would be lead by another, most likely from the lineage that Bane had created millennia ago. The other visions however, they were much closer to home.

"Feel for yourself, my Apprentice. When you reflect on your days lessons, reach out to the Force, sometimes you can feel those strongest in the powers of the Force from millions of light years away. Everything in this universe is connected through the power of the Force. In time you will see that to be true, and not just trust in my words."

All that Avarus could do was nod in reply. Such matters were for later. No matter how much he had worked up a sweat in the arena, he couldn't shake the thought that he was the one sat on top of that throne. He had killed before, in the heat of the moment of battle. Such a burden was expected of a Shinobi, even one so young. But that wasn't the image of a battle. That was a slaughter. Conflicted, Avarus turned back to the blackened tome hoping that his new found interest could defer his worries until later.

When he first arrived in the dusky archive, the boy with little patience sighed mournfully. He despised the academy. He saw no point in reading and learning the history of Konoha. Most of the time he spent sleeping, or skipping class with Shikamaru and Chouji. Hundreds, no, _thousands_, of books, some no thicker than a piece of paper, others as densely packed as his head, covered the banks of shelves in the darkened room.

His instincts were right, he hated it. But that was only because he couldn't understand any of it. The first five books he picked up were in three different languages, none he could understand. On the third day Bane had begun to teach him Basic, but his frustrations quickly sunk in. After two days of getting relatively nowhere, he took the easy way out, handing him one of the newer looking books, the paper inside still white, untouched by the sands of time.

"This will suffice for the moment," Bane had said at the time as he levitated the thin leather bound book into the lap of his young apprentice. Avarus looked to be ready to protest when he eyed the words etched into the cover. "_The History of the Sith" _he read aloud in his native tongue. Beneath it simply said _"The Professor", _assumedly the author. As he opened the cover, he felt relief. They were the notes of one of the predecessors that his Master had mentioned. The first he read was the Code, followed by a narrative of the history written on the walls of the tomb.

The more he read, the greater his intrigue became. He hated studying, but this seemed insightful, helpful as if he could understand what he was doing a little better. This 'Professor' must have spent a lot of time here, as there were reams of his notes, even a diary of his own actions under the tutelage of the Dark Lord. Yet it only helped him so much. The abridged versions of thousands of years of Sith history was not enough. And so he started delving through the archives, looking for scraps that were at least remotely legible to him. Whilst he worked his way through shelves of indecipherable script, the Dark Lord of the Sith often stood silently behind him, watching him do his business. At times he would oft forget that he was even there.

It seemed that his venture was at a loss, when he stumbled upon an old tome, the parchment yellow and decaying, thousands of years old yet well preserved. He looked over the cover again and again, confusedly sounding out the words that he read. _"Captains Log, The Leaf Cutter."_ The mind of the twelve year old was racing. The heavy wad of decaying parchment was written in his tongue. Delicately he lifted the cover, peeling it away from the next page. It sounded like a boat captain to him as he thought on who had written the log, and he was not wrong. Well, not entirely wrong.

"_Captain Dorgon of Clan Ordo" _the first words read. Ordo was no clan that Avarus had ever heard of, though he was not as adept as other in his class at memorising the Clans of the Elemental Nations. At first it seemed like any other Log, yet he quickly realised after a few pages that he had been wrong about its provenance. He read on, _"...the Republic forces overwhelmed us at sector 9, yet we managed to escape along with two-thirds of the fleet. Remaining ships probably lost. Heading back to rendezvous with the Fetts and Auchs in order to break the blockade around Mandalore."_

The more pages he turned, the more confused he became. The book was the log of a battle cruisers commanding officer during something called the 'Mandalore War'. He carefully flicked through the pages, fully concentrating on every word. The account was thorough, covering years of travels across half the Galaxy. But it was at about three-quarters the way through where things got really interesting.

"_...Fucking Republic scum cut off our escape route, only way out of this was to plot a course through nearby uncharted system. Big mistake. Three ships followed our hyperspace jump. The first landed straight in the middle of a singularity well. The entire system is a minefield, un-navigable. Ship was damaged by debris from second ship when colliding with asteroid. Made out for sole habitable planet with remaining ship from Fett Clan to exact repairs. Escape pods jettisoned from the Tsunami of Auch Clan followed behind. Atmospheric turbulence upon entry shutting down engines. Cloud IV of Fett Clan lost all power, heavy landing on surface. We fared better, but ship non-repairable. Total count of survivors stood at 1,247 on arrival, fell to 1,219 after wounds gave in. Planet rich in resources, but uninhabited as of yet. Salvaged what we can from the wreckage, not going to be leaving any time soon as communications are not connecting. Only hope is for remainder of fleet to find us._

"_A month on from the crash, the situation has only grown worse. No sign of rescue. Captains of the Auch and Fett Clans have taken their crews in separate directions from us, along with their shares of weapons, rations, and equipment. Only a matter of time before we're at war down here. Luckily we outnumber the others._

"_Three weeks have passed since our separation and we have our first casualties. Soldier killed by blade. Uncertain as to culprit. Body torn apart by wildlife by the time we found him. Another two men succumbed to blaster wounds a night later. Tightened perimeters and longer watches. Jetpack squadron watching from the high trees. _

"_two years have passed. All hopes of rescue are gone now. Permanent structures have been erected in the fortified camp. Likewise in other two. For the first time since we've been here our population is rising. Thirty babies born in the past three months, along with another hundred more previously. Something strange about the eldest kids. Showing signs of abilities only Jedi have, except no true Mandolorian has ever had Force powers before. _

"_Auch Clan has scattered after defeat by Fetts. Scouts report that five new smaller settlememts have been established over hundreds of kilometres. Auch Clan is destroyed, no longer a threat. _

"_We are not alone. Natives sighted for the first time. Technologically inept, but show signs of Force abilities. Early communications have gotten nowhere. Glad we're walled in. Trust them less than I trust the Fetts. _

"_The fifth anniversary of our arrival has been and gone. The war with the Republic is probably long over by now, and we are forgotten. No deaths in over a month. Fetts have closed themselves off, and the Natives seem to have come to terms with us after two years of skirmishes. Thankful for our armour. I saw a Native fire a ball of lightning out of her hand the other day to kill a boar. The Clan is looking markedly different. Hundreds of kids, almost outnumbering the adults now. A couple more years and we can start to train them. The warriors honour of Mandalore shall be presented to them. Our way will not be forgotten."_

That was the last entry that Dorgon made. It had taken Avarus two days to read the full account, and he hadn't been disappointed by the outcome. "This is a history of my world," the boy had stated then as he carefully put aside the Log, wiping his reddened eyes as he began to stretch out his limbs. It amused him to know that thousands of years ago, a number of ships carrying warriors had crash landed here. All that time, and their 'Way' had not been lost. The original Clan names may have been forgotten over time, but their children had carried out their war with the others. What amused him more was the fact that the 'history' taught in the Academy only dated back to the time of the 'Ridokou Sennin', whom could only have been alive some two-hundred years ago at the latest.

From then on, he searched tirelessly for the works written in Mandalorian. It made sense that their tongue would still be spoken in this day and age. And that was where he stumbled upon Revan. He chose to read up on 'the Professors' notes about the Jedi-come-Sith-come-Jedi before he read the Mandalorian account of Revan during the war. For what was left of his session in the archives, he read all he could about this Republic General. He expected a highly cynical account of Revan, but the more he read he found that it was by a Mandalorian who at one point was actually a friend of Revan's. His criticalities laid at the weakness of his own kin. They honoured the strongest warriors, and Revan was most definitely that.

Sleep finally succumbed to the young apprentice. He shifted his feet slowly towards the barracks, passing out before his head hit the pillow. Yet he did not dream, he remembered.

"_Peace is a lie, there is only Passion. Through Passion, I gain strength. Through Strength, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me." _The words were spoken like a lullaby echoing through his mind, reverberating off the miserable beige walls and patterned tiled ceiling. _"One day when you're older, you shall know these words, you shall understand these words, and you will be strong enough to see that this village is weak. I'm too old to do anything about it now, Naruto. But one day you will be able to change this world." _The bandaged bundle in the over-sized bed felt the weight of a hand on his skull. Instinctively he flinched, but the touch was delicate, so unlike the ones that had put him in the hospital earlier in the night. His swollen eyes managed to open long enough to see the decrepit old man – clad in the ceremonial robes only a Hokage could wear – depart from his bed side and walk out of the room, leaving him to the darkness once again.

"_The Professor,"_ Avarus smirked in his sleep.

* * *

**Author Note: **Well there you have it. As I said at the head, I apologise for the delay, and also for my shocking writing, but if you managed to read all of it then you deserve a medal. If you think it's worthy of reviews then all are welcome. Any queries just leave in the reviews or pm.

Shadow will also be updating soon, hopefully before the end of the month.

Thanks for your time, Naruhina-Namikaze.


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